2007-11-02 Friday NewsThe Friday News
November 2, 2007
HALLOWEEN
This Wednesday evening the Annual Halloween Bonfire was again held at Mendota Plaza. It
was almost held the night before when a “crazy” lady, using charcoal lighter fluid started the
bonfire a day early. Fortunately for us, the Mendota Plaza janitor saw her before the fire got
going too much to put out. (She was fighting the terrorists?). This is one of the City’s favorite
events. It is always very well attended. Thanks go out to the Fire Department, who always
sponsor the event. This year they handed out 1200 free hot dogs and cups of pop. It was windy
that day so there was some concern, but the wind slowed enough and the event went on as
planned. It lasted an hour longer than normal, because daylights savings time is still in effect.
CRITICAL AREA STUDY
Last spring, the State Legislature directed the DNR to evaluate the effectiveness of the
Mississippi River’s 30-year old designation of a State critical area and make recommendations
about how to protect the natural and scenic qualities of the Mississippi River corridor.
Friends of the Mississippi River are coordinating the stakeholder input process for the DNR. On
Wednesday, Sue attended a stakeholder meeting with other local, state, federal government staff
and elected officials. Meetings have also been held with developers and interested citizens.
The attached list of potential management options made for a lively discussion. Note that one of
the options is to eliminate the cities and townships area designation. While all of the cities in the
critical area were required to adopt ordinances in the early 1980’s, only six have updated their
ordinances: Mendota Heights, Lilydale, Dayton, Ravenna, Grey Cloud Island and Nininger.
Input from the stakeholder meetings will be presented at a meeting on Wednesday, November 7,
6:30 – 8:00 p.m. at Neighborhood House, Room 212 (179 Robie St. E., St. Paul).
NEW PRESENTATION TECHNOLOGY
This week City staff received instruction from NDC4 staff on how to use a new projector that
has been installed in the City Council Chambers. With this new presentation technology, City
staff and visiting presenters will now be able to bring their information digitally on a disc and
project their information onto the large pull down screen. Another use for this technology will
also be to allow City Staff to go on line and project aerial photos of properties that are being
discussed.
NO PARKING
This week on November 1st the City’s Parking Ban went into effect. No Parking is allowed on
the streets from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. The ban remains in effect until March 31st.
HEIGHTS HIGHLITES
The fall edition of the City’s newsletter went to the printers this week and should be out to the
residents in about 2 weeks.
NOVEMBER DATES TO REMEMBER
City Council Meeting November 6
Park & Rec Commission Mtg November 13
NOC Mtg November 14
ARC Mtg November 15 (Thursday)
DCC Board of Directors Mtg November 15
City Council Meeting November 20
Planning Commission Mtg November 27
Respectfully submitted,
James Danielson
City Administrator
Attachments: Just the Facts, Pipeline, City Council Agenda, Pre-Application Meeting Synopsis,
South-West Review Article “Local cable station wins national award and Information on
Mississippi River Critical Area Study Stakeholder Meeting, Board of Water Commissioners
letter.